God on our side? The church of England and the geopolitics of mourning 9/11

Geopolitics

Volumn 11, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 561-579

  Megoran, Nick ^a  

^a NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CHURCH ROLE; GEOPOLITICS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY; TERRORISM;

ENGLAND; EURASIA; EUROPE; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 33749188240     PISSN: 14650045     EISSN: 15573028     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14650040600890735     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. It is recognised that 'The Church of England' is far from speaking with a single voice. For example, the response of the Archbishop of Wales, Rowan Williams, who was to become Archbishop of Canterbury, was notably different from that of some other senior clerics. See R. Williams, Writing in the Dust: Reflections on 11th September and Its Aftermath (London: Hodder and Stoughton 2001). Furthermore, as Moyser demonstrates (see note 35, below), the Church of England is a complicated set of institutions, interacting with different manifestations of state, public sphere, and civil society at different scales. This paper makes no general claims about 'the Church of England's', but examines one (very public) engagement of the Church with the 11 September attacks.
2. Henceforth '9/11'.
3. G. W. Bush, 'Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People', 20 September 2001, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov, accessed September 2004.
4. C. Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (London: Time Warner 2002) p. xiv.
5. Ibid. p. viii.
6. See also J. Cooley, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism (London: Pluto 2002).
7. D. Kellner, From 9/11 to Terror: The Dangers of the Bush Legacy (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield 2003) p. 69.
8. 'President's remarks: "We are in the middle hour of our grief"', New York Times (15 September 2001) p. A6.
9. Conservative Party leader William Hague described the attacks as a, 'monstrous act of war against the civilised world'. 'London landmarks evacuated, workers sent home, as Blair calls Cabinet crisis meeting.' Independent (12 September 2001) p. 7.
10. Tony Blair immediately denounced the attacks as the 'new evil ... barbarism', and promised not to rest until 'this evil is driven from our world' ('We will help hunt down evil culprits, says Blair', Daily Telegraph (12 September 2001) p. 2).
11. The next day, phoning George W. Bush for a twenty-minute conversation in which he promised that Britain would stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with the USA, he said 9/11 was an attack 'on the very notion of democracy' ('Blair to demand action against fundamentalists', The Independent (13 September 2001) p. 12).
12. Postings to a message board in Texas spotted by the Independent were typical: 'Death. Strike quickly and completely. DEATH!'; 'An eye for an eye.'; 'Total annihilation.' '"If we knew who did it and they want to put me in a bomber to take care of it, I'd be willing to go" Voices of America', The Independent (13 September 2001) p. 14.
13. 'BBC says sorry to tearful US envoy', Daily Telegraph (15 September 2001) p. 10.
14. 'Barbarism at the BBC', Daily Telegraph (15 September 2001) p. 21.
15. 'A silent world, united in grief', The Independent (15 September 2001) p. 1.
16. 'America's might turns on Arab terrorist havens', The Times (15 November 2001) p. 1.
17. Ibid., p. 1.
18. For example, G. Ó Tuathail and S. Dalby, 'Introduction: Rethinking Geopolitics: Towards a Critical Geopolitics', in G. Ó Tuathail and S. Dalby (eds.), Rethinking Geopolitics (London: Routledge 1998) pp. 1-15.
19. P. Reuber, 'The Tale of the Just War - A Post-structuralist Objection', The Arab World Geographer 6/1 (2003) pp. 44-46.
20. S. Dalby, 'Post-Cold War security in the New Europe', in J. O'Loughlin and H. v. d. Wusten (eds.), The New Political Geography of Eastern Europe (London: Bellhaven 1993) pp. 71-85.
21. S. Dalby, 'Calling 911: Geopolitics, Security and America's New War', Geopolitics 8/3 (2003) pp. 61-86, p. 62.
22. J. Taylor and C. Jasparo, 'Editorials and Geopolitical Explanations for 11 September', Geopolitics 8/3 (2003) pp. 217-252.
23. S. Brunn, '11 September and Its Aftermath: Introduction', Geopolitics 8/ 3 (2003) pp. 1-15, (p. 5).
24. C. Dahlman and S. Brunn, 'Reading Geopolitics beyond the State: Organisational Discourse in Response to 11 September', Geopolitics 8/3 (2003) pp. 253-280.
25. S. Dalby, 'Calling 911: Geopolitics, Security and America's New War, Geopolitics 8/3 (2003) pp. 61-86.
26. D. Harvey, The New Imperialism (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press 2003),
27. D. Gregory, The Colonial Present: Afghanistan - Palestine - Iraq (Oxford, UK: Blackwell 2004).
28. D. Johnston (ed.), Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press 2003) pp. 11-29
29. F. Petito and P. Hatzopoulos, 'Special Issue: Religion and International Relations', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 29/3 (2000).
30. S. Thomas, The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations: The Struggle for the Soul of the Twenty-First Century (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan 2005).
31. A. Chandler, The Church of England and Nazi Germany, 1933-1945, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Department of History, University of Cambridge, 1990, p. 236.
32. G. Davie, Europe: The Exceptional Case. Parameters of Faith in the Modern World (London: Darton, Longman and Todd 2002).
33. D. Kirby, 'The Archbishop of York and Anglo-American Relations During the Second World War and Early Cold War, 1942-1955', Journal of Religious History 23/3 (1999) pp. 327-345.
34. A. Hastings, A History of English Christianity 1920-2000 (London: SCM 2001) pp. xix-xx.
35. D. Cannadine, 'The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The British Monarchy and the 'Invention of Tradition', c.1820-1977', in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1983) pp. 101-164
36. J. Wolffe, God and Greater Britain: Religion and National Life in Britain and Ireland 1843-1945 (London: Routledge 1994).
37. A. Hastings, Robert Runcie (London: Mowbray 1991) pp. 183-186.
38. Key texts include: D. Cannadine, 'War and Death, Grief and Mourning in Modern Britain', in J. Whaley (ed.), Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social History of Death (London: Europa 1981)
39. J. Winter and E. Sivan (eds.), War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1999)
40. A. Gregory, The Silence of Memory: Armistice Day 1919-1946 (Oxford: Berg 1994).
41. For example, B. Fletcher, 'Anglicanism and Nationalism in Australia, 1901-1962', Journal of Religious History 23/2 (1999) pp. 215-233.
42. For example, Moyser's excellent 1985 overview of the political engagement of the Anglican Church in 1980s Britain overlooks services of celebration or commemoration. G. Moyser, 'The Church of England and Politics: Patterns and Trends', in G. Moyser (ed.), Church and Politics Today: Essays on the Role of the Church of England in Contemporary Politics (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark 1985) pp. 1-24.
43. N. Johnson, 'The Renaissance of Nationalism', in R. Johnston, P. Taylor and M. Watts (eds.), Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World (Oxford: Blackwell 2002) pp. 130-142 (pp. 138-139).
44. L. Kong, 'International Review: Cemeteries and Columbaria, Memorials and Museums: Narrative and Interpretation in the Study of Deathscapes in Geography', Australian Geographical Studies 37/1 (1999) pp. 1-10 (pp. 4-5)
45. M. Morris, 'Gardens 'For Ever England': Landscape, Identity and the First World War British cemeteries on the Western Front', Ecumene 4/4 (1997) pp. 410-434 (p. 424).
46. M. Azaryahu, 'The Spontaneous Formation of Memorial space. The case of Kikar Rabin, Tel Aviv', Area 28/4 (1996) pp. 501-513
47. K. Hartig and K. Dunn, 'Roadside Memorials: Interpreting New Deathscapes in Newcastle, New South Wales', Australian Geographical Studies 36/1 (1998) pp. 5-20.
48. T. Campolo, 'The Best of Times, the Worst of Times', in W. Willimon (ed.), The Sunday After Tuesday: College Pulpits Respond to 9/11 (Nashville: Abingdon Press 2002) pp. 50-60.
49. Interview, John Moses, St. Paul's Cathedral (29 April 2003).
50. J. Agnew, Geopolitics: Re-Visioning World Politics (London: Routledge 1998) p. 2.
51. 'She Sang Along with the American Anthem. And, Like Everyone, She Wept', Daily Mail 15 September 2001, pp. 2-3.
52. Letters, Independent 15 October 2001 p. 5
53. D. S. Lewis (ed.), The Annual Register of World Events, 2001 (Bethseda, MD: Kessing 2002).
54. 'Memorial Holds for Jan 27 Bomb Blast Victims at Oke-Afa', Vanguard (January 28 2003), available at http://www.vanguardngr.com, accessed January 2003.
55. 'St Paul's Hears Words of Hope', Church Times (7231) (21 September 2001), p. 3
56. G. Ó. Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space (London: Routledge 1996) p. 104.
57. E. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage 1979)
58. E. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1981).
59. A. Bichel, Contending Theories of Central Asia: The Virtual Realities of Realism, Critical IR and the Internet, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of Hawaii, p. 181.
60. P. Singer, The President of Good and Evil: Taking George W. Bush Seriously (London: Granta Publications 2004).
61. L. Griffith, The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God (Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans 2002).
62. M. Northcott, An Angel Directs the Storm: Apocalyptic Religion and American Empire (London: I.B. Tauris 2004).
63. C. Longley, Chosen People: The Big Idea that Shapes England and America (London: Hodder & Stoughton 2002) p. 329.
64. 'United in Our Tears', Daily Mirror (15 September 2001) pp. 14-15.
65. 'God Bless America: 3-minute Silence Today at 11am', The Sun (14 September 2001) p. 1.
66. 'A Short Silence. Then We Have a Job to Do', The Sun (14 November 2001) p. 10.
67. 'She Sang Along with the American Anthem. And, Like Everyone, She Wept', Daily Mail (15 September 2001) pp. 2-3.
68. 'Comment', Daily Mail (15 September 2001) p. 18.
69. For example, 'The UK', Irish Times (14 and 15 September 2001) p. 2
70. 'Global Grieving: World Unites in Time of Sorrow', Washington Post (15 September 2001) p. A19
71. 'Prayer: A Time to Mourn Across the Globe', Los Angeles Times (15 September 2001) p. A7.
72. M. Heffernan, 'For Ever England: The Western Front and the politics of Remembrance in Britain', Ecumene 2/3 (1995) pp. 293-323.
73. Morris (note 37).
74. A. Crampton and G. Ó. Tuathail, 'Intellectuals, Institutions and Ideology: The Case of Robert Strausz-Hupé and 'American Geopolitics", Political Geography 15/6/7 (1996) pp. 533-555 (p. 553).
75. Unfortunately, the British government did not respond to my requests for an interview.
76. K. Dodds, Global Geopolitics: A Critical Introduction (London: Pearson Education 2005) p. 226.
77. As Thomas Woodrow, a former chief analyst at the US Defence Intelligence Agency, wrote in February 2003: 'September-11 presented itself as a marvellous opportunity to project U.S. military and political power' in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond (T. Woodrow, 'The New Great Game', China Brief - The Jamestown Monitor 3/3 (11 February 2003).
78. C. Dahlman and S. Brunn (note 21)
79. S. Dalby (note 18)
80. P. Rogers, 'There Was an Alternative', Red Pepper (December 2001).